Celtic have crashed out of the Champions League in the qualifying stages, after being hammered by Legia Warsaw in a 6-1 aggregate.
Celtic went into the second-leg of their match-up with Legia facing a 4-1 deficit, but failed to mount a decent offense against their opponents, losing 2-0 in their second match against the Polish club.
The loss effectively destroyed their hopes of a third successive Champions League run, after reaching the last 16 of the tournament two years ago and the group stages last year.
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Speaking prior to the match, Celtic’s 1988 Scottish Premier League and Scottish Cup winner Frank McAvennie stated that the team failing to reach the final 16 this year would be “embarrassing”, saying: “If they don’t win tomorrow they’ll have to let people in for a tenner or something. Otherwise it will be terrible this season. No one will want to come.
“Neil Lennon said they have not invested and he was right – you can’t keep refusing to do that. They will win the league, even if they sell Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster, but it’s the lack of investment in the team that sticks in the craw. They did the same thing last year and it’s embarrassing. They waited until they were in the Champions League then only had a few days to do it.
“There is no point having money in the bank if players are playing in a half-empty stadium.”
Celtic missing out on Champions League football will be a huge blow to them financially, as they raked in £33 million from their Champions League runs over the past two years. It could also mean that the likes of Fraser Forster and Virgil van Dijk will want to speed up their transfers now that Champions League football is off the table.
The club now drop down to the less lucrative Europa League, where they will compete in the play-off round. Speaking after the match, Celtic captain Charlie Mugrew said: “We never competed well enough. I’m not taking anything away from them but we could do a lot better.”
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